Florida football: 15 greatest quarterbacks in Gators history

Terry Dean was one of the early quarterbacks of the Steve Spurrier “Fun ‘n’ Gun” era in Gainesville. The Naples native first joined the Florida football program in 1991. While he had to bide his time behind Shane Matthews as an underclassmen, Dean did join the Gators at the perfect time. Florida won three SEC Championships in his four years with the team.

Buried behind Matthews, Dean didn’t play hardly at all as an underclassmen. He only attempted 45 passes during his first two years at Florida, including a dreadful 13-for-35 as a sophomore in 1992. But with just two touchdowns to three picks entering his junior year, Dean would certainly redeem himself in his final two years with the Gators.

In 1993, Dean completed 59 percent of his passes for 1,651 yards, 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 10 games. He was able to improve his accuracy slightly as a senior in 1994 by completing 60.6 percent of his passes.

While his yardage dipped to 1,492 as a senior, Dean threw for 20 touchdowns to 17 interceptions. Let’s not forget that the Gators won back-to-back SEC Championships in 1993 and 1994 while Dean was playing quarterback for them.

In four years at Florida, Dean completed 57.9 percent of his passes for 3,420 yards, 39 touchdowns and 23 interceptions. He averaged 8.0 yards per attempt and boasted a career 144.9 passing efficiency rating in college.

Dean would play briefly professionally with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Florida Bobcats and the Rhein Fire before retiring in 1996. Was Dean a bit of a system quarterback? Probably. That being said, you can’t discredit a guy who was on three conference championship teams and got better every year under center.